A few newbie questions

[jramz]

Hey everyone,

I've been starting to learn more and more about VOIP and was hoping some of the more advanced users could help me out.

Let me start out by saying what I want to do. I run a small business and want to have this be my phone system. I would like 4-5 extensions in the office, but also an extension at my house. So when you call the office number it'll ring in the office and at my house.

Right now I have it setup where I have the server (grandstream) at my office and 3 phones (grandstream). I have them working well where they can call each other and I can call out on the PSTN line.

Where I have problems is when a call comes in, the caller will hear a couple of rings on their phone before ours rings. And the main problem is that I cannot figure out how to setup a phone at my house. So that it connects to the server at work. We do not have a static IP at the office, can I use a ddns? Is the main reason I cannot connect to the office server due to our router/firewall?

We are a small business, so I am the "techie" guy, and I know a decent amount, but nothing compared to some of you guys, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
-Jon

P.S. the product seems really cool and I like it alot!!

 

[Anonymous]

Sounds like an interesing project

First i assume that the 3cx box runs in the office.

I would like 4-5 extensions in the office

That is no problem at all, to make them ring at the same time create a virtual extension, you do this the same way as with a normal extension.
Than make the real extensions part of that extension. You can configure them to ring all together or one after the other.

So when you call the office number it'll ring in the office and at my house

Two ways of doing this. One way is to have the phone call diverted to your home number as external dialing.
Second have the phone number being a seperate extension (very messy).

I have them working well where they can call each other and I can call out on the PSTN line.

Well for a so called "rookie" you doing well, very well indead (I have high hopes for you son (LOL))

couple of rings on their phone before ours rings

That is the problem with analogue it is a bit slower it has to go through the ata and than into the 3CX. In the lines configuration you can set the "answer after" to 0 this should make it a little faster.

So that it connects to the server at work. We do not have a static IP at the office, can I use a ddns? Is the main reason I cannot connect to the office server due to our router/firewall?

Ah you want the phone to be part of the 3CX network, but you have no fixed IP. That does not help. I would not recommend this you can try DNS but you will run in all sorts of issues and drama's It is possible but very fiddly and would not recomment this for a beginner.

If you going to try it, well we are here to help but it might be a long night. The problem mainly is that I do not know how 3cx deals with domain names.

We soon will find out i guess.

Hope this helps
Henk.

 

[jramz]

Thanks for the reply.

The IP address seems to change only about once per day, so if I could get everything running, then I would have no problem spending the extra few bucks to get a static IP.

Is there anything special I need to do to get my IP phone at home to connect to the server at the office other than just give my phone at home the office IP address? What I am worried about is issues about router ports and firewall, b/c I don't really know much about that.

Thanks!
-Jon

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply.

Is there anything special I need to do to get my IP phone at home to connect to the server at the office other than just give my phone at home the office IP address? What I am worried about is issues about router ports and firewall, b/c I don't really know much about that.

Thanks!
-Jon

Yeah the special bit is, you need a fair bit of patient and lots of friends on this forum. (Just Kidding).

In theory it will work, depending on the phone you have, it is possible.

See you have a few challenges.
1. get the phone talking to your router and than to the 3cx server.
2. protect your phone from outside users, it is an ip address and it will be able to be pinged.
3. once you can connect to your 3cx box it is all sweet sailing from there, to get it connected is the tricky bit.

But happy to help where I can.

Henk.

 

[N_G]

Hi,

To get an extension working at home at the very least you need a dedicated IP at your office. And at your home to be able to make your firewall config more secure.

Furthermore, you need to specify that the home extension is "Device is external" in the Advanced configuration section of the extension...

 

[jramz]

Hi guys,

What I have just tried was to change the SIP address in my IPphone from the IP address of the server behind the router (192.168.1.xxx) to my public IP address (66.67.xx.xx), now the phone should still find the server, but it doesn't. It does not connect to the server. Does this mean it is a router/firewall issue?

Thanks fo all the help,
-Jon

 

[shane]

Hi Jon,
your phone will not be able to find your external IP Address if it is still plugged in behind that router, try it from another location (your home for example), it still may not work, but at least that way you can rule out one possible cause.

Shane.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

What I have just tried was to change the SIP address in my IPphone from the IP address of the server behind the router (192.168.1.xxx) to my public IP address (66.67.xx.xx), now the phone should still find the server, but it doesn't. It does not connect to the server. Does this mean it is a router/firewall issue?

Thanks fo all the help,
-Jon

ok to have a chance for this to work you need to tell you phone the IP address of the device that represents you network to the outside world. In this case that is you router. Your router will have to route the traffic to the 3cx box, in the router you have to tell it where the incomming traffic has to go.

For example:
SIP/IP Phone [IP address]:[port] maps to 3CX [IP address]:[Port].

The trick is to have your boundary point talking to each other, for example router to router and than configure the accepting router to allow traffic.

SIP/IP Phone ----> IP address of your router ----> 3cx box.


Hope this makes sence?

Henk.